Cooking With Linux

This entry got started with a trip to Staples to buy three cartridges for our Inkjet Printer.Price? $60.00 for the cartridges. Then we saw a new printer on sale for $69.00. This printer did not come with a network interface. Other than that it was a newer version of the one we have.

So depending on the time we are in the store, we may find a printer for the same price of replacement cartridges. Or, if you purchased your printer at the time there is a model change, like we did with our colour laser, it will not take too long before you have spent the same amount on toner, that the printer cost in the first place. But this is because the original price of the printer was well below normal.

I can get rather annoyed about this. If I want to just look at the price of the ink or toner. However, here is the way I look at it.

1. Printers are priced low enough that everyone can afford a printer. The more you print the more you pay. Fair enough. The company may not make much on the printer, the best profit is in the ink and toner.
2. If all that you spend in a year is $60.00 on Ink; that cost you $5.00 a month. Bargain.
3. It was not too long ago that a scanner would set you back $2,000.00, a laser $2,500.00, a fax machine $300.00. Fax directly from your PC $100.00, Colour? Forget it. You want a copier with that? $$$$$.
4. Today we can buy a five in one for $150.00 or less. Paying $60.00 for ink is not a bad deal.

I admit that it is frustrating when you want to do the right thing by not tossing anything out that is still useful. Even if you do not care about the environment, if your parents were alive during the Great Depression getting rid of a perfectly good anything, is with out a doubt, sacrilege to you. But it is difficult when a five year old plus laser can be replaced with a new one at a lower price than the toner costs. And there is nothing wrong with the old laser.

But then there is the brick wall that I friend and I hit. His new computer did not support the parallel interface on his old laser. He paid $35.00 for an adapter cable, even though a new laser can be had for $60.00. Darn if we could not get that computer to print to the laser. After an hour of messing around with it, he decided that even if we did get it to work, it is more trouble than it is worth. "Yes" I said, "and the new one will be plug and play. You will not need anyone to set it up for you".